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I always tend to work well under pressure. People think I'm crazy or lazy, but I know my muse doesn't open her eyes until at least two days before something is due. I have been known to do four hours of research in the library the night before a paper is due, then spend three more hours writing the paper. I almost always got an A on these fly-by-night papers, so after awhile I stopped questioning my methods.

This methodology didn't leave me once I was done with school, however. I got everything done for my wedding except for my veil. In the three or four days before the wedding I spent many hours sitting and talking with my girlfriends who flew in from Virginia, my head bent over the filmy fabric on my lap and my needle picking up tiny gold beads. It went with me the night before my wedding where some of my closest friends and I shared a bottle of Beaujolais and talked.

My friends wanted to stay with me until the end, but they started getting too sleepy to keep their eyes open. I let them sleep and continued sewing at the kitchen table. At two a.m., finished beading, ironed the veil, and sewed it to the hair combs. I stood in front of a mirror and tried the veil on. For the first time, I realized the significance of the ceremony I would be participating in the next day. I felt full and complete, solid, symmetrical, right. I never felt so alive. I never felt so surreal.